Have you ever wandered if there is more to your Christian walk than what you are experiencing?

Well if you have, you are in good company. My personal quest for more of God started a long time ago and to be honest, I have not always been very diligent in seeking the Lord. All you have to do is half heartedly seek Jesus to come to a place of spiritual poverty.

What do I mean by that? Well think about that for a moment, God promises in his word that if we would diligently seek him, we will be found by him. He will reveal himself to us and we will know the fullness of who He is.

Matthew 7: 7-11

7. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

8. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

9. “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?

10. Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?

11. If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

Now my question remains, we go to church, we go through the motions, but there is little evidence of a life change in our lives, the promises of Jesus don’t seem to be showing up in great quantity in our lives, what is wrong and how can we rectify the problem?

The root cause of this is what I will call a severe case of spiritual poverty and indifference.

Christ came to the earth with the express purpose of saving mankind from the sins that brought death to them. He told us that he came to bring us life and in that new life we would be able to live fully with his blessings, both physical and spiritual.

He also told us that as Christians we have a spiritual enemy that comes to steal, kill and destroy us in any way that he can. But Christ promises to give us life, and that we would be able to live it to the full. So, why are we not living as abundantly as we should?

John 10:10

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

There are a few reasons for this kind of mediocre living.

We have an enemy, known in the bible as Satan or the Devil, and his express purpose is to thwart what is best for us in our lives.

What is best? Best is that we get to know our heavenly father!

The enemy/Satan will try and sabotage our efforts to know God in a deeper way; he will do this in a variety of ways, like distractions, busyness, self centeredness, pride and arrogance, laziness, willful sins and a mechanical devotional time, if we have devotions at all.

These are just a few ways that he uses to kill and destroy our walk with Jesus, our Savior.

When this happens, we get apathetic about the word of God, and it no longer holds any appeal, we might even read it a little but it is out of obligation and not out of a great desire to know God.

This breeds an atmosphere of spiritual bankruptcy and poverty

As our spiritual lives are starved of the life giving words of Jesus Christ

We are slowly dying and not even realizing it.

Proverbs is one of my favorite books of the bible as it has so many words of wisdom that we need to apply to our daily lives, and one of those tidbits of wisdom is that if you are lazy, you will reap a harvest of nothing. What I am saying is that if we are lazy in our efforts to come near to God, and we are lazy in our study of the word of God, his truth and our guide for knowing him, we will come to poverty.

I realize that this particular verse is talking about wealth but, the principle is the same, if you are lazy, you will become poor in your thinking, your finances and your spiritual well being. It affects every part of your life. But if you are diligent in how you approach your life, spiritually, financially, educationally, you will be become more prosperous in all of your dealings.

But, the great news is that on that flip side of laziness is diligence. If you diligently seek the Lord, he promises that he will most certainly bless your efforts. If you study the word of God, fill your mind with all the wonderful treasures that it contains, if you are diligent in being obedient to what you have learnt, you will be able to bear much fruit. God promised that if we stay connected to him, and walk humbly with him, he will give us His strength to do all that he has purposed for us to do.

The cost of indifference to the word of God is extremely high, it will cost you the joy of knowing Jesus Christ your Savior in a deeper way, it could even eventually cost you your salvation as your heart grows cold to God and His perfect will for your life, therefore causing you to reject Christ.

My friends, if you find that this is true in your life and you have a chronic case of spiritual poverty, I ask that you stop what you are doing right now and repent to God, He promises that if you repent he will forgive you of your sin.

I know that he wants to bring you into an abundant, refreshing, life altering life with Him. Run into his waiting arms today!

As we continue to explore what it means to fear the lord we will once again start with scripture.

Philippians 2:12-16

12. Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed–not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence–continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,

13. for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

14. Do everything without complaining or arguing,

15. so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe

16. as you hold out the word of life–in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.

I would like to draw your attention to verse 13, which says that God works in us (Through the Holy Spirit) to will and to act according to his good purpose. Now, why is this important?

Well we need to realize for us as normal human beings we would ordinarily run in the opposite direction of doing the right thing. Therefore, God graciously gave us His Holy Spirit, to help us do the will of God. It is God’s will that we have a reverent fear of him, knowing in our inmost being that He is Holy and to be respected. Both for what He has done for us and for who He is.

We do not have to do it all by ourselves. We cannot do it on our own, man tried to live up to the laws that God had set up years ago, through the 10 commandments, and other requirements that God had laid down for the people, but by themselves, with out divine intervention, they could not keep the requirements by themselves.

So, after Jesus died on the cross for our sins, God sent his Holy Spirit to live in the hearts of man. The Holy Spirit is the one that now enables us to fulfill God’s perfect will for our lives. His will is that we would walk in an attitude of reverence for Him.

Before I go any further, I want to draw your attention to a verse in the Old Testament to show you how costly irreverence was to the people of old, and to let you know that God still requires us to show him the same kind of respect that he demanded of the people of old to as well.

Leviticus 10 : 1-11

The Death of Nadab and Abihu

1. Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command.

2. So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.

3. Moses then said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD spoke of when he said: ” ‘Among those who approach me I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored. ‘ ” Aaron remained silent.

4. Moses summoned Mishael and Elzaphan, sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel, and said to them, “Come here; carry your cousins outside the camp, away from the front of the sanctuary. ”

5. So they came and carried them, still in their tunics, outside the camp, as Moses ordered.

6. Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not let your hair become unkempt, and do not tear your clothes, or you will die and the LORD will be angry with the whole community. But your relatives, all the house of Israel, may mourn for those the LORD has destroyed by fire.

7. Do not leave the entrance to the Tent of Meeting or you will die, because the LORD’s anointing oil is on you.” So they did as Moses said.

8. Then the LORD said to Aaron,

9. “You and your sons are not to drink wine or other fermented drink whenever you go into the Tent of Meeting, or you will die. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.

10. You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean,

11. and you must teach the Israelites all the decrees the LORD has given them through Moses. “

(All things highlighted with italics are done by the author of this article to emphasize points)

I am not sure if you have heard the saying “God is the same yesterday as He is today” Well it is true, God does not change and has not changed how he deals with his people. We are given a choice today on how we treat the things of God, whether in a way that is Holy or as unholy, and each has a consequence to it.

If we as modern day christians choose to treat the things of God as Holy, we will walk in the blessings of the Lord, we will enjoy his favor and the outpouring of his love for us.

If we choose not to regard God as Holy and all that He says to be holy and choose to live for ourselves, there are consequencses for that as well. As believers, we will have broken fellowship with God, we will have unfullfilling prayer times,we will lack the power of God in our lives to affect the lives of the people around us. He did not call us to that.

I did not include this scripture to scare you but to make a point, and the point is this, Aaron’s sons had been taught how to perform all of rituals that had been required by God. The were taught that certain things were to be regarded as holy and they were taught how to handle the things of God. They tried to do things their own way. They showed no respect for what God had already told them and the cost of that disobedience for them was their lives.

God does not require that we go to the temple in Jerusalem and offer burnt sacrifices any longer, but He does require us to be obedient to the ways that he has set down for us. As christians in our modern society we often do not take God and his ways as serious as we should, this is shown in how we treat his sanctuary here in our own communities.

We often come into church or our quiet times with an attitude of duty, rather than an attitude of excitement and reverence and passion for the relationship that we are nurturing. When we come into church with the attitude of duty we dishonor God as we have not come to recieve from him or even to worship him.

We rush in with our thoughts on everything but Him. We might even had a blow out with one of the family members on the way to church. We might even still be angry and in no mood for the whole service, but obligation and duty spur us on.

We complain if the music went on to long and if the lighting was not perfect. When the preacher is preaching we are sometimes a million miles away in thought, our stomach may grumble and we are instantly transported to lunch time and what we would be having. We are sincerly glad when they give the final announcements, and we walk out of church unchanged by the whole event. Then we rush off to lunch and quickly give a prayer of thanks and move on to other things.

Is it any wonder that our prayer lives are powerless, our churches are ineffective at truly reaching the lost in our communities and our own lives are mediocre at best.

The result of mediocre worship of God; is that we tend to have ineffective prayer lives, which causes a cascading effect. We tend not to see much of God at work in our lives, so it causes a chronic case of unbelief, which leads to disrespect, which leads to and even deeper sense of unbelief.

Beth Moore stated in her book, Believing God, that “We see little, so we believe little, so we see little.”

It is a vicious cycle.

So how do we change this in our lives and in our communities?

The first place to always start is with repentance, I have found that the way to remain walking in humility with God is to admit your sin, turn away from it and make every effort to walk in obedience to His ways for you.

Before you go to church, why not find a quiet spot and pray and seek the lord, ask him to reveal his heart for you. Repent of any sins that might be blocking you recieving from him what he has for you. When you put this into practice into your life, you will find that God will most definitely speak to you through the worship and through the preacher’s words.

Remember, God has annointed that preacher to teach you what is on His heart for you. So if you are prepared, you will be able to hear.

I pray that as you have read these words, you will understand that God’s heart for you is to know him in a deeper way, and that you will understand that by being obedient to his word and showing him the respect that is due to him you will start to walk in a whole new and deeper experience with Him, The Lover of your Soul!

Blessings

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I have been asking this question for a long time, I really did not understand all of the implications of what it meant to walk in the fear of the Lord, the bible makes reference to it many times, but that did not help my quest in discovering exactly what that meant.

In the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy we see that the Lord God gave the Israelites the direct decree to fear him and he also told them why they had to as well.

Deuteronomy 10: 12 –14

Fear the LORD

12. And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

13. and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

14. To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it.

When God told the Isrealites to fear him it was for their own good that they do so. I want to show you that it really is still for our own good that we walk in the fear of the Lord, that we regard the things that He says as holy, to be holy. That we show respect to him for not only who He is to us, but also for what he has done for us.

Unfortunately history has proven that this has been very hard for man to do, to love the lord our God with all of our heart, soul and mind. It has also proven very hard to walk in reverent fear of the lord as well.

The dictionary says that fear, can be a distressing emotion that is aroused by impending danger, evil, or pain. This kind of threat of fear can be real or imagined. Fear can also be a concern for something or someone. Example you could be afraid of cancer, or for someone’s safety.

Then the other kind of fear is to have a reverence for something, because it is regarded Holy. It is a feeling of awe.

The second definition is what we will be discussing here, the feeling of reverence and awe for the creator of the Universe, The Lord God Almighty.

We as christians are told to walk in the fear of the Lord God Almighty. We are to fear Him in a reverential fear, in that we show respect and awe for who He is. The creator of the universe. But there is a certain amount of healthy fear that goes along with this as well.

What is a healthy fear, it is a fear that you feel for someone because of their authority over you.

The reason that we would fear the Lord, is two fold, one, because we are told to in the bible and the other reason is that when we are in a relationship with the Lord and we want to be obedient to him and do all that would please him.

Just as a child would do for a parent, it goes out of it’s way to please a parent, because that child knows that there will be praise, love and acceptance for him in the relationship. It is the very same way for us, we respect and honor God because of our relationship with him.

In the North American society it is hard for us to imagine being under the rule of a Monarch, we don’t get to see all of the pomp and ceremony and respect that the Monarch’s receive, because of their position.

God is the Monarch of our Universe; He is the creator, engineer, maker of all things that for the most part we take for granted. As such, He tells us His children to walk in reverent fear of Him and the principles that He has laid out for us.

In our culture we have adopted an attitude of disrespect for most of everything. Adults have hardly any respect for the people in authority over them, like policemen, bosses etc. They in turn model this disrespect to their children who are excused from respecting their elders as they don’t want to squash their individual rights.

At school, these children have no idea how to show respect to their teachers, peers or themselves. The TV reality shows are full of great examples how respect is not something that is taught in the homes any longer.

The result is that we have a catastrophic turn in our society away from the principles of God.

Now, I say all of this to show you that we have been brought up in a culture that generally lacks respect, both for ourselves and for others, so when God says to us, that we need to respect him, and walk in reverence with him, and to regard the things that He says are Holy as Holy. We struggle with the whole concept of it.

So, how do we as Christian people, learn to walk in reverence and obedience to our loving heavenly father?

The first place to start is in the word of God,

Philippians 2:12-16

12. Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed–not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence–continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,

13. for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

14. Do everything without complaining or arguing,

15. so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe

16. as you hold out the word of life–in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.

I would like to draw you attention to verse 12, it tells us as christians that we need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. What does that mean exactly?

We have a part to play in our christian walk, we are responsible to study the word of God, we are responsible to renew our minds, (change our thinking from death to life). We are to have a reverent fear of God, who He is and what he has done for us.

But if we were to try to do it on our own it would be very hard to do. God in his great mercy sent the Holy Spirit to help us to will and act according the the good purposes of God for our lives.

In the next article we will be looking at the things that God regards as Holy and if regards it as Holy then we need to pay attention to that and regard those things as Holy too. You see when we show respect to the things that God says are holy then we are showing honor and respect to him as well.

We will be exploring more scripture as we discover the truth about having a reverent fear of the Lord God Almighty.

I would like to explore with you the meaning of what true repentance is, in my previous article I taught you what it meant to be remorseful about something. To feel sorry about or have a deep regret over something that you have done.

How do we go from having a deep regret over recurring sin in our lives to actually walking in true repentance? I believe that we have to start with understanding what true repentance actually means.

The Greek word for true repentance in the dictionary is the word – metanoeo – and is coupled with the noun – metanoia

This word speaks of a true repentance, a change of your mind and purpose and life, to which the remission of sin is promised.

Wow, God promises that if we trully are repentant for the sin that we have commited, change the way we think about that sin, change our purpose from one bent on death and destruction to life in Him, and change the way we live, turning away from our sin, that He will forgive and remove our sins from us completely.

There are many wonderful passages in the bible that tell us of what God does for us, like sending His one and only Son to die for our sins. Sending His Holy Spirit, so that we can know His mind and heart and will for our lives.

Repentance is different, it requires us to take responsibility for our actions, and see to it that we do not continue on that path any longer.

What do I mean by that?

We need to have a change of mind and purpose in our lives (go from enjoying our sin to hating it)

We need to truly hate the sin that entangled us (Psalm 119: 128)

We need to voluntarily turn away from our sin and turn to God instead (literally to go in the opposite direction from the sin, to run and flee from it)

We need to persistenly endeavour to live a Holy life in walking in obedience to God’s word (1 Peter 1:13)

We need to become trully aware of the guilt that comes with the sin and how it pollutes us and the feelings of helplessness that it puts us into. Instead of living with the guilt, we can take it to God and he will forgive us of it.

True repentance not only brings about an awareness of our sin, but it also brings with it an understanding of the mercy of God, without which there would be no repentance.

I need to clarify something, that it is the Holy Spirit that brings about the awareness within us that sin is around. He does that to gently lead us to a place of repentance so that we can be brought into right standing with God. He does not show us our sin to just remind us of how awful we can be and then leave it at that.

No,

He shows us our sin so that we will cry out to God, for His mercy and truthfuly say from the depths of our being that we will turn away from our sin and endeavour not to do it again. The Holy Spirit has been sent to us to be our Helper to show us the way back to God.

He does that by showing us that there is sin in our lives that needs to be dealt with. Once we are willing to let go of that sin, and no longer hold onto it in our lives he then can tell us the truth from what he hears from heaven.

John 16: 7-15

7. But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

8. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:

9. in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me;

10. in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;

11. and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

12. “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.

13. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

14. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.

15. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.

The greatest result that comes from the repentance of our sin, is that you will see and understand yourself to be exactly what God has always seen you to be and who He declares you to be!

The devil, who is our spiritual enemy, loves to get us so caught up in our sin that we truly only see ourselves through the eyes of our sin. Then we fall into the trap of claiming our identity through our sin. For instance, if you told lies in the past to cover something up, the devil will torment you with the false identity of being a liar, forever a liar, you will always be just that a liar.

But God says otherwise. He says that when you repent of your sin, like lying, stealing etc, you are given a new identity, and that identity is in wrapped up in Jesus Christ, you are a new creation.

Therefore, true repentance involves us having a heart change, that moves us in the opposite direction to the sin that we had once entertained. True repentance shows us the way back to God, cleanses us, and sets us free to walk as God intended for us to walk, free of condmenation and fear.

The Old Testament records the writings of King David. He was said to be a man after God’s own heart. Why would God specifically say that about a man, well King David was quick to offer praise to God in good times and bad. He was full of passion for God and his word, the laws and decrees that had been handed down through the ages. He also was a man that was quick to repent when he sinned against God. The Psalms gives us a pretty clear picture of a man whose heart was tender to God and his will for his life.

I want to draw your attention to Psalm 51, this particular Psalm has come to mean a lot to me over the years when I struggled with the right words to express my deep sorrow and repentance over the sin that was in my life. I am sure that it will encourage you as much as it has encouraged me.

Psalm 51

1. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.

2. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

3. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.

4. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.

5. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

6. Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

7. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

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Have you ever wandered what the difference is between having remorse over something and actually repenting for it?

Well on my journey of discovery I came across a startling realisation. I did not trully understand the difference between the two.

So enter stage left, the wonderful Holy Spirit. Why I say wonderful is because it is the Holy Spirits job to lead us into the truth about all things that pertains to God. Jesus is speaking to His disciples before he is crucified, we get to eavesdrop on the conversation in John.

John 16: 12-15

12. “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.

13. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

14. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.

15. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.

So here the bible tells us that one of the jobs of the Holy Spirit is to lead us to the truth from Heaven. This is so exciting as we can trust that when he shows us something it is straight from the heart of our Father God. He wants us to know it and it is not only for our benefit but for the encouragement of other people as well.

So my revelation went something like this:

What is Remorse?

When we find ourselves in the midst of sin, we feel sad, and guilty. If we are endeavouring to walk with Christ we are sorry for what we have done. We might say to God ” O God, Please forgive me” but within a week, or even a few days we could find ourselves trapped right back in the same sin once again. Only this time, we are feeling a hundred times worse than we were the last time. I can say this as I speak with much experience in this area, unfortunately.

We then run to God again and repeat the same little prayer, “Father forgive me please”.

We could be on the repeat cycle for a long time with no lasting change in our actual behaviour.

Why do we do this?

According to the dictionary there are three words in the Greek translation of the bible that denote Repentance.

The first being the verb – metamelomai – which means to have a change of mind, so that it produces a feeling of regret or remorse on account of the sin that you have just commited. This particular use of this word does show that you can have a change of mind, but it is not necessarily a change of heart.

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, God is all about changing our heart to reflect him.

He wants our hearts to be surrendered to His purposes and plans for our lives. He wants us to have a change of heart in connection with our sin. So that the world will see how much He loves them through us, and will see His glory that He has placed in us. John 17

That is why it is so easy to find our selves on the repeat cycle when it comes to our sin, because we never have a change of heart.

Why don’t we have a change of heart? The reasons are plentiful, but one of the biggest reasons is because we actually enjoy the sin that we keep running after.

It might be that God has shown us through the Holy Spirit, that the words that come out of our mouths to other people are not bringing life to them but death, but because we feel vindicated by “speaking our minds” we continue on our self righteous destructive path of sin.

It could be that we enjoy watching television shows that are not all that edifying to us. We might enjoy watching the romances or stolen kisses or whatever it is. The Holy Spirit has shown us that it is not edifying to our spirit and therefore should not continue to do it. We do, because we enjoy it.

The list is endless of the things that could trap us because we enjoy the sin. So we dance around the issue of our sin, giving it every other name under the sun instead of admitting that we continue in it because we enjoy it. We probably feel remorseful for the continuation of the sin, but often times are not aware that we can break the destructive cycle of it.

How? By taking the next step, from being sorry for the sin that you are or have committed and feel bad about, to actually having a complete change of heart about the sin.

The bible gives a great example of someone who experienced remorse but never had a change of heart and therefore was lost to hell for eternity.

His name is Judas Iscariot. We all know him as the traitor, the one who betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, then identified him with a kiss. Such betrayal brought about a sense of deep remorse, but he never asked God to forgive him.

Matthew 27:1-5

Judas Hangs Himself

1. Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people came to the decision to put Jesus to death.

2. They bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate, the governor.

3. When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders.

4. “I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.” “What is that to us?” they replied. “That’s your responsibility.”

5. So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.

So from this passage of scripture we can learn a very valuable lesson.

Just because you have remorse over something that you have done, does not absolve you from the eternal consequences of your sin.

Only true repentence which is a change of heart, can remove the sin from you. In the word of God, the Apostle John tells us that if we will repent of our sin, God is faithful and just and will forgive us of our sin.

1 John 1: 5-10

5. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

6. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.

7. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

8. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

10. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

Today as you read this note, if you are playing around with sin in your life because you enjoy the thrill that it brings, whatever it is, please take it to our Heavenly Father, don’t be a fence sitter and have to face the eternal consequenses of eternal seperation from God. That is to such a high price to pay for a little bit of “enjoyment” now.

Repent today, turn away from the sin that so easily entangles you and God promises to remove your sin from you. He will not hold it against you but cleanse you from it. He also promises to bring you into right standing with Him. All you have to do is take the step from remorse to true repentance.

In my next post I will explore what it means to walk through true repentence.

Believe it or not we as Christians are called to live at a higher standard in this world, because we have been given the truth of God, through Jesus Christ, the word of God- the Bible

How do we find out what God requires of us and how we are supposed to live? We have a responsibility to study the bible and not only study it but put what it says into practice in our lives.

In the following points I will be sharing with you what is required of us as Christians when we want to be obedient to the word of God. I am sharing this with you to encourage you to put these principles into practice in your life, marriage, friendships.

So how do we respect our husbands, in a world that says that men are not worth respecting?

I need to praise his good points in his character, the things that attracted me to him in the first place.

I need to show my appreciation for his efforts in our family. (men are often the bread winner, and we need to appreciate the hard work and effort that they put in for our family)

Thanking him, for that effort is always welcomed; he believes that he is showing his love to us by putting in the long hours and working hard for us. (as women we tend to resent the time that he spends at work and away from us, therefore it causes conflict. Us mad at them, and them not understanding why we feel this way, when all they do to provide for us) mixed up I know.

I need to openly display my affection for him in front of others. In this way he will feel secure in my love for him.

I need to allow him to take his place as the priest and head of our home. That is not my place to take, it is his God given place, and if I try to put him there, or try to take that place myself, I find myself in conflict with him.

If he chooses not to take that position, I need to pray for him, so that God will reveal to him, his place and God given Authority and responsibility in our home.

I need to not be a nag and a nuisance to him

I need to respect myself and my body so that I can give him respect.

I need to not put him in the place of God in my life, He will disappoint me as he is not God, therefore I will be disappointed in him which will lead me to have an attitude of disrespect.

I need to be willing to walk alongside of him, not running ahead, and not groveling behind him.

I need to stand up for him when necessary and prudent.

I need to not be a nag! (I know I repeated, The book of Proverbs repeats it more than I do)

I need to remember to not be the force that drags him down and undermines his self worth, (the enemy/devil can do that all by himself, without your help)

I need to remember that even when I have had a bad day with “our” children, he to has worked a full day, and throwing the children at him when he gets home is not always the best thing to do.

To him, you are saying, what you did all day was not as exhausting and as tiring as what I did, therefore, you should put out and help me now.

I realize that this goes both ways. But maybe working out a compromise that works for both of you, is better than you getting mad, because he does not immediately take the orangutan children off your hands the minute he walks in the door.

Remember he has feelings to, not just you and you will need to be sensitive to that.

I need to be willing to lovingly take him into my bed so that he can express his manliness and love to me, the way God intended.

I need to let him stand up and fight for me, so that he can show his love and protection to me.

I need to be a godly woman, whose heart is fully surrendered to Christ Jesus so that I can through Christ do all of these things.

I pray that these tips will help you in your endeavor to be a godly woman who loves and respects her husband.

Take a few moments now and ask the Holy Spirit to open up your eyes to these truths, to help you to implement them into your life. He promises to do that for us, he promises never to leave or forsake us, he promises to help us in every way so that we can be what God has always seen us to be!

To continue our discussion about the Power we have as believers in Christ Jesus, we will look once again at the story of Lazarus, and how his death and resurrection has an effect on our spiritual life today.

To start with we need to look at the text in the bible where it comes from,

John 11: 17- 37

17. On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.

18. Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem,

19. and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother.

20. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

21. “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

22. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

23. Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

24. Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

25. Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;

26. and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

27. “Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”

28. And after she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.”

29. When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him.

30. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him.

31. When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.

32. When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

33. When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.

34. “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

35. Jesus wept.

36. Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

37. But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

To begin with, when Jesus arrived at the place where Mary, Martha and Lazarus lived, he (lazarus) had now been dead for 4 days. Everyone was grieving and feeling the pain of the loss. When someone died in their culture, it became a huge event, where they would wail aloud and many people would gather, to help the family mourn the loss of the loved one. They would also do this for many days.

This is the scene that Jesus walked into. All of these people crying and wailing for the loss of Lazarus, they did not know or understand what was about to happen, so therefore some even said amongst themselves, hey, he healed a blind man, surely he could of saved a sick man!

But remember that Jesus was on a divine Mission, to reveal himself to the people.

When Jesus arrived with the disciples, his own spirit was grieved at the loss of lazarus, he was a man as well as God, so he to felt the full emotions that we do. He even wept, I think that his weeping had a lot to do with his sadness over the loss, as well as the unbelief of the Jews, and that even after all of this time of him revealing himself to the people, they still did not believe that he was who he said he was.

Our reaction to God is not unlike Martha

“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

We often stand back and say, but Lord if only, I think as humans we have so many if only’s, and for a moment she did not remember the power of Jesus, even though she had seen and been around him as he taught and revealed himself to the people.

We are not unlike Martha, we see the things that God does in our life and at that time we praise him for it, acknowledge that it was him who did it for us, and then another situation arises and we have completely forgotten what he had done for us previously.

But noticed her next sentance, she remembers her faith, and states that she knows that if Jesus asked God he would give Jesus exactly what he asked for. She stated her belief in Jesus, why is this important to point out, well, God says in

Hebrews 11:6

6. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

She established her faith in Jesus, just as quickly as she had questioned him and his devotion to her and her brother. God works where faith is evident, she expressed her faith and he was able to then reveal his glory to those around him.

John 11 : 23-27

23. Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

24. Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

25. Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;

26. and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

27. “Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”

Jesus then address the all important issue, he establishes his identity and authority by which he can perform miracles. He also established her belief in him, and his ability to do what he said he could do. Martha established her belief in Jesus through her spoken words. This revelation knowledge that Jesus is trully the Son of God, can only be known by someone, if the Lord reveals it to them. Jesus had revealed to her that he trully was the Son of the living God.

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we as believers have the Power and Authority of Jesus Christ living in us, through the Holy Spirit. But we need to actively believe that Jesus is indeed within us. That His word is true, and that we are able to do all that He says that we can do in and through Him.

We cannot do it on our own, but through the living power and authority of Jesus. Our belief in Jesus will then reveal His glory to the world around us. With the Holy Spirit living within us we can be assured that when we pray to God and ask him for anything, in Jesus name, he will hear us and answer according to His will for us.

His always answers us, we might not always like the answer but he always answers us. God answers our prayers in three ways, with a Yes, Wait and No. Think for a moment of all the things that you prayed for in your life time, and some of the things that you are really glad that you did not get a yes to. God knows what is his best for us, he always answers our prayers, when we pray in faith.

So be encouraged, know that you have the power of the living God, living inside of you, and you really can trust that when you pray and ask for anything, he will always hear you and answer you according to his perfect will for you life.

As believers in Jesus Christ we have been given the power of God, that power is not for us, to make us feel good and have the warm and fuzzy feelings that it can bring on, that power that God has given us, is for the body of Christ. Jesus Christ gave christians power so that we can show the world around us that He loves them. That He sent His son, Jesus Christ to die for all of our sins.

In order for us to exersise this power we first need to see how Jesus himself exercised this power and what effect it had on the people around him.

John 11: 1-16

The Death of Lazarus

1. Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

2. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.

3. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

4. When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

5. Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

6. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.

7. Then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

8. “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?”

9. Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world’s light.

10. It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light.”

11. After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”

12. His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.”

13. Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

14. So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead,

15. and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

16. Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

The first thing that I want to point out is that Jesus, told the disciples that Lazarus’s death would not end in death. How would He know that? In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John we are told that Jesus often went away by himself to pray. It does not always tell us exactly what Jesus prayed for but we know that he was refreshed and empowered by those times.

The same principle is true for us, when we go to a quiet spot, and unplugg ourselves from our busy lives and talk to God, he promises that through the Holy Spirit he will reveal His will to us, about all things. So when Jesus said to his disciples that the sickness and death of Lazarus would not end in death, he knew that to be true, as He had spent time with God.

He also told his disciples that this was for God’s glory that this was happening to Lazarus. Imagine the look on their faces, there were probably confused by these words of Jesus. This passage of scripture tells us that Jesus really loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus, and he cared about them and their welfare, but he still waited for 2 days, after he had gotten the news.

Why wait that long? Remember that this would end with God being glorified.

We have to understand that Jesus, is fully God, who was represented to the world as a man, therefore as a man he wept, laughed and felt all the same kinds of emotions that we do. He knew that Lazarus was sleeping, but the disciples who had limited understanding, thought that he was just literally sleeping, but the truth was, that he was actually dead.

Through the revelation of God, Jesus knew the outcome of this situation. Eventually Jesus tells the disciples that Lazarus is actually dead. Jesus tells the disciples that he is glad that they were not there when he was dying.

Why would Jesus tell his disciples that he was glad that they were not there?

Well think about this, if Jesus was there when Lazarus was sick, he would of been asked to heal him, which he could of done, but Jesus wanted to reveal to his disciples in a deeper way that he trully was the Son of God. Jesus could of also just spoken the words and lazarus would of been healed as well.

The disciples could not understand why Jesus would want to go back to a place where they were trying to kill him. Jesus was on a divine mission. He was about to reveal his glory to all those around him.

We to have been given a divine Mission, and that is to reflect God to all the people that we come in contact with. We have the power and glory of God living in each one of us, and are therefore more than capable of fullfilling this divine mission that God has given us to fullfill.

The enemy would have us believe that we are not capable, or that we have nothing to offer the people, or that because we are not in a foreign country talking to the natives we cannot truly be a “missionary to the people” .

The truth of the matter is this, because we have been given the power of God and his glory we are more than capable of doing anything that God has set before us to do. Whatever you have gone through in your life, wherever you have seen God at work in your life, you can use all of those experiences to show God to a hurting, dying world.

Be encouraged and strenghtened, and know that God would not have placed all of himself into you if he did not have a plan for your life. Reflect him therefore in everything that you do.

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The Lord Jesus Christ has shown me that the only way to walk humbly with him is to keep “short accounts” of our sin, in other words, when we sin, and are made aware of it, to repent immediately, if we do not get into this practice we will find that our hearts become hard to the things of God and we are not as willing to turn from sin, that can so easily entangle us.

This my dear friends, is the most important step on the road of Discipleship. You need to recognise that you need someone to save you from yourself, and you need to have your sins removed from you.

Why would you need this? The bible is very clear when it talks about how sin and God cannot be in the same place at the same time. God wants to have the number one spot in your life, but he cannot occupy that spot if you and your sin are in that place.

Well what do I mean by that?

Sin came into the world right at the beginning. God had created the heavens and the earth, and he created all living things, animals and plants. He then created Man, and a little later created woman, to be man’s help mate.

God had instructed them that they could enjoy all that He had for them in the garden, for food, but they were not to touch the tree that stood in the middle, it was the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. But man did not know that he had an enemy who was determined to steal from them the right to have eternal life, health, happiness, free of diseases, pain free births, and uninterupted fellowship with God.

Up to that point they were walking with God all of the time, they saw him face to face, they did not know what pain and suffering was, and they did not know what it was like not to have intimacy and whole hearted devotion with God. They had it all.

But the devil, was crafty, and planted a seed of doubt in their minds. That seed of doubt about God and his intentions for them grew and Adam and Eve eventually trusted the devils words over God’s. In that instant their eyes where open and they saw that they were naked, they knew that they had done wrong, so they hid from God. Oh, how sad a moment that must of been when they actually realised what they had done.

But the story gets worse, they hid when God came to walk in the garden with them, they hid because they were ashamed of their nakedness and for what they had done. When God asked them what they had done, they pointed the finger at everyone but themselves as to why they had chosen to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Eve blamed the devil, Adam blamed Eve. But they did not take responsiblity for their own actions.

Please read the passage below to get the entire picture of this story.

God creates man in his own image

Genesis 1 : 27 – 31

27. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

28. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.“

29. Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.

30. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground–everything that has the breath of life in it–I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

31. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning–the sixth day.

God commands man not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil

Genesis 2:15 – 17;

15. The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

16. And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;

17. but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

The Fall of Man

Genesis 3 : 1 – 24

1. Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?“

2. The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,

3. but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ “

4. “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman.

5. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6. When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

7. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

8. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

9. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”

10. He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

11. And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?“

12. The man said, “The woman you put here with me–she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

13. Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14. So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.

15. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

16. To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.“

17. To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

18. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.

19. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

20. Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

21. The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

22. And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”

23. So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.

24. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

The reason I mention this story is that we need to recognise within ourselves our part of our responsibilty for the sin that is in our lives. We cannot blame everyone else for our bad choices, we cannot blame our parents, teachers, friends, siblings, our past, our spouses, our present, our jobs for the way we act or react to situations.

These things are contributing factors, but in reality we need to make the hard choice to look at our own actions, and ask God to forgive us for our sins. As you saw in the passage, God and sin cannot be in the same place at the same time. So he had to seperate himself from Adam and Eve and send them out of the garden forever. That close bond that they once had shared was gone now. All that was left was pain and suffering, both for God and for humanity for a very long time.

But, the good news is that God set a plan in motion that would bring about the ability for us to have a close, wholehearted relationship with him again. He loved us so much that he wanted to have fellowship with us, so he sent his son, Jesus Christ to earth.

John 3:16 – 21

16. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

17. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

18. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

19. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

20. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

21. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”

God tells us that if we will believe in his one and only Son, Jesus Christ that we will not die, but be given the gift of eternal life. It really is as simple as that, we need to believe in Jesus, and that gives us the right to become children of God and it gives us the ability to inherit eternal life with all of the great blessings that come with it.

Jesus is referred to as the light of the world, that light when it shines on our sin, exposes it for what it is, sin. How does it do that? The light of Jesus, exposes the sin that we love to hide from God, but when we believe that he is the Son of God, and that God truly did send him then that sin, which is now exposed, can be removed from us.

How? first we need to acknowledge that we have sin, then we need to ask God to forgive us of our sins. He promises that he will forgive us of our sin and set us free from it.

1 John 1 : 5-10

Walking in the Light

5. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

6. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.

7. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

8. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

10. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

God promises that if we confess the sin in our lives that He will not only forgive us of our sin, but he will also purfiy us from the unrighteousness that it has caused in our lives.

To purify, means to wash clean, so therefore when he forgives us, he washes us clean from the destruction that sin brings to our lives. Unrighteousness means, that we are no longer in right standing with God, when he changes us from unrighteousness to righteousness we are now in right standing with God.

So I encourage you to ask the lord Jesus Christ what sins you are holding onto in your life. When he reveals those sins to you, humble yourself and ask him to forgive you of those sins, his promise ist hat he will. This whole process is a part of our walking in obedience to his word, the bible.

So obey today, repent of your sin, be cleansed by God. You will be filled with the peace and assurance that he will never hold those sins against you ever again, he removes them from you forever. You are set free.

Embrace Jesus Christ today!

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